ON THE SILVER SCREEN

Don't be a sucker for Hollywood's shell game

Exclusive: Ted Baehr warns 'people of faith and values' about pitfalls of show business

Dr. Ted Baehr is the founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, and a well-known movie critic, educator, lecturer and media pundit. He also is the author of several books, including "The Culture-Wise Family" with legendary entertainer Pat Boone. For more information, please call 800-899-6684 or go to the MOVIEGUIDE website.

Intelligence is not your smarts, as they say in New York, but knowing everything you can about the target territory, such as where the weapons of mass destruction are buried.

Movieguide always has urged people of faith and values to get into the entertainment industry. At the same time, we have warned people about the pitfalls and tried to educate people and equip them to deal with the unique situation of show business. In this regard, the Los Angeles Times has published a series of articles on all the brilliant outsiders like Howard Hughes and William Randolph Hearst (to invoke some ancient examples that are common knowledge), who came to Hollywood and got fleeced.

The good news is that more Christians are getting involved in the entertainment industry. The bad news is that many of the deals they are doing just don’t make sense, and these brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ are getting fleeced.

Savvy distributors, who we like, are asking little independent movies produced by Christians to put up $5 to $10 million in distribution fees. Like self-publishing fees, these fees may disappear into the Hollywood overhead of the distributor.

There are two problems with believing you can rent a distribution system at these prices. One is that if a distributor is releasing a movie it produced and financed at the same time it is releasing an independent movie that has bought its distribution system, the distributor will naturally lean toward promoting its own movie, for very obvious reasons. When a Christian reporter said to me this was shocking, I said that if you had to meet with a studio head and they told you that you could pitch only one script but you had your script as well as a friend’s, which one would you pitch?

At the box office, a movie has to gross at least two-and-a-half times its production budget to break even.

Why?

Well, let’s go through the mathematics quickly. Theaters will take 50 percent to 90 percent of the ticket price. Let’s say they take a conservative 50 percent. That leaves 50 percent to be divided between the Christian producers and the distributor. If the distributor takes between 50 percent to 90 percent, that leaves at most 50 percent of 50 percent of the ticket price, or 25 percent. Thus, if the movie grosses $10 million (which is highly unlikely for an independent movie in the best of all circumstances), the theater will take $5 million, the distributor will take $2.5 million, and the producer may get only $2.5 million. Of course, this is very optimistic, because of the large upfront costs for distribution.

Realistically, therefore, to make your money back on a $10 million investment, the movie has to gross more than $40 million. If you go to BoxOfficeMojo.com or any other movie website, you will see right away that very few movies make that much box office.

Producers who tell investors they’re going to make their money back under these circumstances need to be challenged about their projections.

For example, I heard of one wealthy individual being asked to put up $7 million to distribute a documentary that may be popular among conservatives. In the 117 years of movie history, however, only about three documentaries have ever made more than $50 million, according to Box Office Mojo: “Fahrenheit 9/11” at $119.19 million, “Justin Bieber” at $73.01 million and “March of the Penguins” at $77.44 million.

Of course, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s a sucker born every minute. Regrettably, history has shown that some of the brightest financial minds have been conned by the Hollywood community.

If you’d like to know all of the different pitfalls, tricks and opportunities to succeed in Hollywood, please get a copy of “How to Succeed in Hollywood (Without Losing Your Soul),” which shows you how to use your God-given and God-ordained gifts and talents to make significant creative contributions to the entertainment world. The book helps readers learn from industry professionals – the brightest and best people of faith in the entertainment industry – how they developed their screenwriting, acting, directing, producing and behind-the-scenes interests to make Hollywood and the world a better place.
The contributors you will read exclusively in “How to Succeed in Hollywood (Without Losing Your Soul)”include:

Randall Wallace, the writer of many movies, including “Braveheart,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Secretariat” and “We Were Soldiers” (which he also directed and produced);

Frank Yablans, former president of Paramount Pictures.

As Stephen Collins, star of 7th Heaven, said:

“How to Succeed in Hollywood (Without Losing Your Soul)” is full of wonderful interviews, tips and research that anyone can put to work. … Written with real-world practicality, here’s a primer on how to break into the movie business while hanging on to your soul.”

On an unrelated but important note, WND (formerly WorldNetDaily) – celebrating its 15th anniversary this week – just may be the very best news and commentary website on the Internet. We consult it at least daily, and often more than that! We also refer our readers to many of its news items, information, commentary, books and videos.

WND has also been tremendously important to the growth of our ministry at the Christian Film & Television Commission, Movieguide and The Culture Watch. With their help and God’s gracious blessing, we have grown by leaps and bounds. We urge all Christians, conservatives and traditionalists to support WND as well as make full use its excellent unique and vital services.